Steel end for freight-cars.



W.V E. WILLIAMS.

STEEL END Foa FREIGHT CARS.

mman@ APPLICATION FILED DEC. 26. 1914.

Patented Sept. 11, 19171.

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A fs!! 'I atnin sae .a WCE WILLIAM ERASTUS WILLIAMS, OF CHICAGO,ILLINOIS.

STEEL END FOR FREIGHT-CARS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. 311i, 191W.

Application led December 26, 1914. Serial No. 878,991.

To all whom z't may concern.'

Be it known that I, VILLIAM ERAsTUs lViLLiAMs, a citizen of the UnitedStates, residing at Chicago, in thecounty of Cook and State of Illinois,have invented a new and useful Improvement in Steel Ends forFreight-Cars, of which the following is a specification.

The object of my invention is to provide a cheaply constructed steel endthat will be very rigid in every direction and yet furnish approximatelya smooth surface for the inside of the car. It has for a further objectof furnishing a steel end stiffened by corrugations of such a naturethat when a wooden inside sheathing is used the corrugations will not beblocked oif entirely leaving voids that will retain dust, but thecorrugations will ventilate themselves and allow 2@ the dust to fall tothe bottom andl drain out through the dust space ordinarily provided forthat purpose with the wooden ends. The steel sheet may be of one pieceor more than one piece, that is, an integral @d or a compound sheet, asmay be most convenient.

Reference will be had to the accompanying drawings in which Figure l isan end elevation of'my end, the sills and draft gear 3@ not being shown.

Fig. 2 is an end elevation of a strip through the middle of the endshowing a portion of a car end wherein' two plates similar to the plateof Fig. l are overlapped.

Fig. 3 is a cross sectional elevation of the end where it joins the endplate.

Fig. et is a view similar to 3, but having the top edge of the end sheetturned over at the top of the end plate.

Fig. 5 is a plan section at one of the corners of the car.

Fig. 6 is a similar view but showing the corrugations carried around thecorner.

ln the drawing` 1 indicates the sheet of metal forming the end of thecar. rlthis sheet may be one piece as is indicated by Fig. 1, or it maybe composed of two or y more sheets spliced as is indicated by 2 in Fig.2.

The sheet is embossed with corrugations 3 running in a direction acrossthe car and with corrugations 4 running vertically. At the intersectionsof these corrugations there are embossed cups 5 which are approximatelytwice as deep as the corrugations and along any line passing through oneof the cups the plate is as stiff as along any line passing at one sideof the cup.

Thus my end sheet is stiifened in each direction by corrugations thatare not weakcned by the intersection of the other corrugations since thecups stiften the intersections in every direction giving the plateapproximately uniform stiffness although its corrugations intersect.

In the ends heretofore used for freight cars, stiffness has beenprovided usually in only one direction, th'us either transmitting allthe load across the end to the corner posts or else carrying it from theend sill vertically up to the end plate. In the first instance thecorner posts are required to be stiffened by diagonal braces or ties ofsome kind and in the other case, the end plates on the roof structureare required to absorb the severe shocks.

In some cases a circular corrugated end is used and with it, the cornerareas are not suitably stiened by the circular corrugations, andcircular corrugations do not lend themselves easily to line with wooden.sheathing.

With my style of stitfened end li get a j flat surface for a large partof the area on the inside of the end which is a desideratuni.

lWhen an inside wooden lining is required with my end, l inserthalfround wooden inserts 6 into as many of the corrugations as desired andfasten them by bolts or rivets 7 and to these inserts G li nail thewooden sheathing 8. y

.The arrangement of this sheathing may be horizontal or vertical assuits'the wishes of the purchaser of the cars and in either case theinserts will obviously be located, asA shown in the drawings7transversely with'respect to the sheathing boards which for illustrationare shown as horizontal. In other words, the inserted strips will bevertical or horizontal according as the sheathing boards are horizontalor vertical.

For a large part of the area, the wooden sheathing 8 lies against theflat surfaces of the end and thus it is sustained bythe steel sheet.throughout most of its area against puncture or rupture by contact-s ofconcentrated loads like bars of iron, ends of pieces of pipe, timbersand other things; whereas with most other corrugated ends the woodensheathing when used is supported only at MES the summits of thecorrugations and the larger area of the wood is exposed to rupture.

The vertical corrugations are so close t0- gether that but smallsections of the horizontal corrugations are found betweenthe cups, sothat any dust that may gather 1n a horizontal corrugation will be likelyto be jarred by the travel of the ear over to the adjacent verticalcorrugation and be dropped down through it to the dust gap at the floorIv'terminate at 12, Fig. 6.

The end is suitably fastened to the c orner post 13 by bolts 11 or byother suitable means or other arrangement of bolts as de sired.

The inside sheathing for the side of the car is indicated by 15 and acorner strlp 1s indicated by 16.

The top and bottom edges of the end may be left flat and bolted tothe'end sills and end plate. 17 indicates the end plate and 18 the roofand 19 the top of the end sheet, Fig. 3.

In Fig. 4 the top of the end is flanged over as is indicated by 20.

The splice between the sheets that compose the end when the same is madeof more than .one piece is made to occur across the corrugations and notthe cups for convenience and the corrugations are so made that theyextend across the splice as is indicated by 2, Fig. 2 and the splice isriveted or bolted or otherwise suitably fastened,'21 indicating rivetsfor this purpose. This arrangement of the splice carries the stiffnessacross the splice and secures with spliced sheets the substantial effectof a continuous sheet.

By my construction I get an end stilf'in every direction. Should it bedesired I may make my end with a bulge outward in the middle portion andstill retain the stilfening corrugations and cups.

I may cause the flanged edges of my end to act as corner posts and endplate or either separately as desired. The flange 20 may be so made asto furnish all the strength requiredfor it to perform the function oftheend plate without reinforcement.

A sheet embossed with ribs and cups as I have indicated is a very stili'sheet evenif the cups are not appreciably deeper than the ribs and agood end can be made that way, but not as good an end as when the cupsare deeper than the ribs.

What I claim is:

1. The combination with an internally flat sheet metal car end providedwith a set of embossed ribs extending upwardly from points near thefloor line, with a second set of ribs of like character intersecting theribs of the first set, and with materially deeper embossed cups at thepoints of intersection, respectively, of strips secured in some of theribs and extending across the deeper cups into which the ribs merge,and'wood sheathing secured to said strips, covering the inner face ofthe metal and forming therewith continuous open passages in all ribs notfilled by the strips.

2. In a metal car end, the combination with a metal sheet having itsconstituent metal deflected to form external ribs or corrugationsextending along vertical and hori- Zontal intersecting lines and mergingintol integral deeper cups at the points of intersection, respectively,of wooden inlay strips xed in certain of the vertical corrugations orribs, and wood sheathing secured to the inlay strips. Y

3. The combination with a sheet metal car end provided with embossedribs extending along intersecting lines, inlay strips fixed in certainof said ribs, and sheathing secured to the inlay strips, the downwardlyextending ribs being carried outward at the'points of intersection toform by-passes around any inlay strips in the ribs met by saiddownwardly extending ribs.

4. The combination with a sheet metalt car end having its lateralmarginal portions bent to lit against the cars sides and its bodyprovided with vertical embossed ribs, with horizontal embossed ribscontinued into said portions, and with materially deeper embossed cupsat the points of intersections of the two sets of ribs, of wood stripslixed in certain ribs of one set, and internal sheathing fixed toI saidstrips.

5. In a car end, -a heavy metal sheet constituting the mainstrain-resisting element of the end -Wall and consisting of a primarilyplane sheet pressed outward along many lines to form two intersectingsets of narrow integral stifening ribs distributed wih approximateuniformity over the car en v 6. In a car end, a heavy metal sheetconstituting the main strain-resisting element of the end wall andconsisting of a plane body pressed outward along a series of manyparallel lines to form a set ofnarrow stili'- ening ribs ext/endingapproximately across the car end and pressed outward along a series ofother lines to form many similar ribs intersecting the ribs of the firstset.

7. In a car end, a sheet of metal constituting the main strain-resistingelement of the end wall and consisting of a primarily plane sheetpressed outwardly along a plurality of angularly disposed lines to forma plurality of sets of relatively narrow interseeting stiffening ribsdistributed with approximate uniformity over the surface of said sheet.y

8. In a car end, a sheet of metal constituting the main strain-resistingeleme'nt of the end wall and consisting of a primarily plane sheetpressed outwardly along a plurality of angularly disposed lines to forma plurality of joined `sets of relatively narrow intersecting stieningribs distributed .with approximate uniformity over the surface of saidsheet.

9. In a oar end, a heavy sheet constituting the main strain-resistingelement of the end Wall, and consisting of a plane body pressedoutwardly along a series of sundry parallel lines to form a set ofnarrow still? ening ribs extending nearly across the car and pressedoutwardly along a series of other lines to form sundry similar ribsinterseetmg thei ribs of the first set, in oombination with marginalstifening members adapted to ooaot with some of said stiffening ribs totransmit imposed stresses to can framing.

10. In a oar end, a heavy metal sheet constituting the mainstrain-resisting element of the end Wall and consisting of a primarilyplane sheet pressed. outwardly along sundry lines to form two sets ofinterseeting narrow integral stilening ribs uniformly distributed overthe car end, said sheet having angularly disposed edge flanges, andmarginal stifening members within said flanges adapted to ooaet withsome of said stiffening ribs.

Signed in Chioago,.in theState of Illinois and county or Cook this 23rdday of- December, 1914.

WILLIAM ERASTUS WILLIAMS. l

Witnesses:

A. D. SHANKLIN, H. A. FoRsBERG.

